poliphilo

Ailz was meeting a Friend for coffee at the station cafe (when I write Friend with a capital F it means they're not only mates but Quakers) while I took myself to Camilla's bookshop- that legendary Eastbourne institution- and stocked up with reading matter.

I bought:

Lily of the Valley: My favourite Balzac- because it's nice to have a hard copy and it's time I re-read it

The Charterhouse of Parma (in the Scott-Moncrieff translation) which is also a re-read. As a teenager I was dotty for the Red and the Black and found the Charterhouse hard going but the Charterhouse is clearly the more grown-up of the two and if I had to deal with Julien Sorel at my advanced age I think I'd find him insufferable whereas the Duchess of Sanseverina and her lover, Count Mosca are calling to me and saying, "We think you'd appeciate us now...."

Bacon's Essays- because I really ought to have them under my belt

And...

Sterne's Sentimental Journey because I was reading about it the other day and came away with the impression that I'd love it....

Then I went to the Florist on South Street and bought a little pot of flowers for the Meeting House.

After which Ailz and I met up and went for a pizza at an Italian restaurant just off the Memorial Roundabout. Yesterday was the 33rd anniversary of our first meeting....